Thursday, April 24, 2008

There's a certain amount of healthy paranoia among poker players. Looking over your shoulder before you peek at your hole cards, checking out the casino parking lot before you scurry to your car with your precious bankroll, securing your tinfoil hat before you log on to your favorite online site...we're all a little bit nervous.

With all the bloggers having troubles when their invisible internet activities suddenly affected their real lives, it just adds another level to be paranoid about.

When I started this blog I wasn't really careful about protecting my real name. My online name is based on my real name, and anyone with very simple deductive skills can figure out the rest. (Just made the rest of you feel stupid, didn't I?)

There are a few non-invisible internet people who read this blog, and I have a message for those people:

DuggleBogey is not a real person. He doesn't actually exist in the real world. He's just a character I play on the internet. None of the stuff he says is any real person's opinion, and nothing he claims happened to him actually happened. It's all a fictionalization based on a reality that's not all that real to begin with, being that most of it has occurred on the internet, which is really all just a figment of Al Gore's imagination.

Friday, April 18, 2008

I don't know Brandi Hawbaker, I just know some of the things that she's done. I've even heard her side of the story. From what I can tell, this person was despicable.

A lot of people are saying they feel sorry for her. They feel more sorry for her now that she's dead, which is curious. When she was alive, they sure as hell stayed clear of her. With very good reason. Destruction followed wherever she went. Eventually those that got involved with her knew the risks involved, and still ended up regretting their decisions. And this is not a surprise to anyone.

She killed herself. Took her own life. She was obviously troubled. Mentally ill? Maybe. But what if she wasn't? What if she was really just deep down a bad person? They're out there you know. People who take advantage of every opportunity, morals be damned. Maybe she was one of them?

Maybe she wasn't. Maybe she did a ton of good things and made lots and lots of people around her happy. Maybe she brought joy to millions of people's lives. But I seriously doubt it.

What if she was still around? You know and I know that she'd just move on fucking someone else over. That person just got lucky. And I'm probably being too generous. Many people are probably very fortunate that this happened.

Some of you must be imagining that Brandi could have reformed herself. She could have turned her life around and started being a really good person. Nothing but good deeds from that point onward. If that were possible, then yes, Brandi's suicide was tragic and sad.

But it's NOT so it ISN'T.

Those of you claiming to be saddened over this need to consider the fact that even if Brandi isn't, it's very possible that everyone surrounded by her is much MUCH better off now.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Nobody posts on Thursdays. There's something strange about it. People post their weekend plans on Fridays, their weekend results on Mondays up through Tuesdays. Wednesdays hold enough residual energy that people post. Thursdays are just bleh. Maybe there's a rush in American Idol or Worlds Best Retarded Celebrity Ice Skater contest that people blog about like crazy that I miss out on because I don't read that shit.

I never will understand why people blog about something I can watch for myself. If I cared, I'D FUCKING WATCH IT, I WOULDN'T READ ABOUT IT ON YOUR BLOG. I'm sure a bunch of political bloggers who want you to vote for their guy blogged about the debate last night. IF I CARED I WOULD HAVE WATCHED. Shut up already. A post about something actually going on in your life is worth a thousand posts about what happened on Americas Gayest Talent Show.

If you're going to post about something on TV, post about something that nobody is watching. Don't post about something that is already the most popular thing on earth. You might as well be posting Hannah Montanna recaps, okay?

I got a very kind invitation from the RakeBrain folks to the LeCheese Challenge poker tournament happening tonight, but I have been working pretty late these days and the thing starts at 5pm my time. Ordinarily I'd think that was cool and I'd jump on it, but launching a new product has really lengthened my hours at work. Something has to make up for all those six hour days last year. Anyway it was nice of them to invite me and if you are interested in Rakeback and you don't want to do PSO check out the cool folks at RakeBrain.com.

Friday, April 11, 2008

I had to get new brakes put on the truck today. I've never been so happy to spend $178 on something. I used to dread vehicle maintenance costs. They were always outside of my budget and I had to scramble to get the money to pay for them. But now, paying vehicle maintenance is almost a pleasure.

See, I haven't made a car payment since 2002. Yeah, my vehicles are old. But they look pretty good and more importantly, they run pretty well. They're trustworthy and the maintenance costs are very reasonable compared to a car payment.

Would I like a brand new car? Hell yeah! Do I deserve one? I think so! I'm constantly surrounded by brand new cars as they're being built. Since I work in the automotive industry almost everyone around me buys a new car yearly or even more often. Some of my co-workers get a new company car every 90 days. Corvettes and Hummers and Cadillacs. Oh My!

I spend a lot of time in my car. I drive 45 minutes each way to work. I live out in the country so if we want to go to a nice restaurant or somewhere downtown in Nashville it's a 30-90 minute drive. A new luxurious ride is easily justified.

Having a brand spankin' shiny new convertible sportster would be awesome. A honkin' big SUV with all the luxuries would certainly make my ride more pleasurable. But not as awesome and pleasurable as not having a car payment and not having collision insurance. My pleasure comes from not paying an expensive tab for a depreciating asset just so I can have a new toy that's just going to get old too.

And when the maintenance burden becomes too much, or the vehicles I have aren't reliable enough, I'll have the cash to buy my next vehicle without payments.

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*I know it sounds hypocritical to work in the auto industry when I don't buy new cars. But I don't think it is. Some people like shiny brand new cars. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I can see why, new cars are fuckin' awesome. I just have different priorities. I think it's fine that people don't have the same priorities as me. Sometimes I wish that people didn't spend more money than they have and can actually afford. But I don't think that's ever going to happen, so why not just let them worry about that themselves?

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Congrats to Waffles on his Mookie win last night after a protracted and interesting heads-up battle vs. pvanharibo.

I haven't railbirded for a long time, but Sunday I was tooling around some blogs and saw that Surflexus was playing the Sunday Millions on PokerStars so I thought I'd check in. Surf is a good tournament player and a great guy so I enjoyed watching his progress and chatting with him in IM.

Based on that I thought I might check out the Mookie, my favorite of all the BBT3 events. I was pleased that Iakarus was playing and enjoyed chatting with him and Julius Goat. The chat is always furious at Waffles' table so I kept an eye on that one too.

When heads up finally arrived after the shocking departures of hoyazo and Fuel55, someone said this in chat:

Friday, April 04, 2008

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

First a note: Molten Core was an April Fools joke by Blizzard. I would never buy a console, they are for pinheads who are intimidated by computer keyboards. (KIDDING! Stop with the kicking!)

Based on this joke alone:Blizzard > Mythic Anyone

Anyways...

Speaking of jumping the shark, apparently when I wasn't watching (because I stopped playing....and then even stopped watching) the BBT events jumped the shark. There's no question that Al is THE MAN for putting on this tournament series, but nobody's ungrateful like bloggers are ungrateful.

I guess the bigger the prize the more people feel the urge to be assholes when they feel like their particular "poker justice" isn't being done.

GaryC is literally the nicest guy I know. A lot of you folks are super people, but the top of the list features ol' GCoxy. And even he thinks it's just not worth it anymore even with the fantastic prizes that are involved in this deal.

The last time I railbirded a blogger event I didn't enjoy myself in the slightest, and I just never went back. I really love talking with some of you who know how to have fun. But that group of assholes manages to suck the fun out of it for everyone who isn't in their clique.

It's actually very sad. The great thing about bloggers was that they were an over-the-top inclusive group. Today's menu is exclusivity. All they can eat.